elude with the words, " Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." They forgot their confident assertions made a few hours before. They forgot that they had declared their willingness to die with their Master. Thc}^ forgot everything but the danger that stared them in the face. The fear of death overcame them. They " for- sook him, and fled.''
How many j)rofessing Christians have done the same ? How many, under the influence of excited feelings, have j)romised that they would never be ashamed of Christ ! They have come away from the communion table, or the striking sermon, or the Christian meeting, full of zeal and love, and ready to say to all who caution them against backsliding, " Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing .?" And yet in a few days these feelings have cooled down and 23assed away. A trial has come and they have fallen before it. They have forsaken Christ.
Let us learn from the passage lessons of humiliation /and self-abasement. Let us resolve by God's grace to / cultivate a sj)irit of lowliness, and self-distrust. Let us settle it in our minds, that there is nothing so bad that the best of us may not do it, unless he watches, prays, and is held up by the grace of God. And let it be one of our daily prayers, " Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." (Psalm cxix. 17.)